Aikins's 25,000-foot jump culminated when he deftly fell into a 100-by-100-foot net, as the crowd in attendance burst into cheers.

"I'm almost levitating, it's incredible," said Aikins, who prepped for the jump for two years. "This thing just happened! I can't even get the words out of my mouth."

Three other people, each of whom had parachutes, jumped with Aikins. One was armed with a camera, another created a smoke trail for people to follow Aikins' progress and the third carried oxygen that was necessary until reaching an appropriate altitude. Eventually, all three parachuted down, leaving Aikins to his own device.

As for how this played out, Aikins said it almost never came to pass because of his reaction when someone first approached him about the jump. "Like any normal, sane person I said, 'Thank you but no thank you I have a wife and a son and I've got a life to live,'" he told People. "Then, two weeks went by and I kept waking up in the middle of the night thinking, if somebody said you had to do this how could it be done?"